


Mercenary's Guilt

by kaylaelric



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Canon: Castlevania (Cartoon 2017), Castlevania Series Spoilers, Dracula’s Castle (Castlevania), F/M, Inspired by Castlevania
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:27:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28871553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylaelric/pseuds/kaylaelric
Summary: Melody Femrite is a Mercenary who is just trying her best to make easy coin and make a better life for herself. When she takes on a request from a town local, she finds herself mixed up with Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha.





	Mercenary's Guilt

Melody Femrite picked up her glass mug of piss-colored beer and chugged it down sloppily to the bartender’s dismay and slight disgust. She’d had a long night of cleaning demon guts out of her long black hair and needed some sort of ease. The beer seemed to be helping. Her hair had been much longer before she cleaned it. If she wouldn’t be accused of cross-dressing she would have just cut it all off.  
No matter how much she hated cleaning demon guts out of her hair, she did like patrolling and cleaning out the surrounding areas filled with the hordes of Dracula’s monsters. Months ago, when all of this started happening, you couldn’t get enough people to take the Night Creatures down. Now everyone was dying out. Which one would assume was the mission of the murder-hungry demons.  
The citizens of Wallachia believed that Dracula had been a myth until recently. However, the endless waves of Night Creatures would beg to differ. Dracula was an immortal god of destruction no one could even think of ridding the world from. After his mortal wife was burned at the stake for being accused of dabbling in witchcraft, he obviously and rightfully was upset at the humans who were responsible.  
Melody fiddled with her now empty mug. Just the thought made her uneasy. She couldn't imagine the pain he felt. She’d never really cared about anyone enough to take a lover, nor did she want to. Her past was full of hurt, but she was far more fortunate than him in the aspect of personal tragedy.  
Before she could delve deeper into thought, a man burst inside the tavern abruptly. Melody finally cut her emerald eyes away from her empty mug and to the man. He was in shambles and covered head to toe in blood. “Someone! Please help me! The demons--” He almost buckled over trying to catch his breath, his hands landing on his knees to steady himself. “My family was killed by a horde. I need help. Please... Someone. Anyone. Help me!” He stood there and listened to see if anyone would answer his cries for help. After a long silence, a brawny man stood up from one of the many tables in the bar. His demeanor was angry.

“Horace!” He exclaimed with a clear scowl on his face. “You oaf! Are you trying to lead the damn things here?” The brawny man stalked over to where the man named Horace stood.

Horace slowly stood to face the other man. “J-John... This was not my intention. I-I had no other option,” he stuttered out. John picked the smaller, weaker man up by the collar of his shirt and flung him to the floor in a fit of rage. Melody carefully watched the encounter. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to get involved or if she should just leave them to it.

John stared down at the man and paused before speaking again. “Do you realize what danger you’ve put us all in?” He asked Horace, who he held by the collar. He pushed him to the floor with a sneer. Horace was now just trembling in a ball on the floor. John walked over to the windows. He carefully observed the area outside. He stood there for a moment. The bar was silent. “I don’t see anything yet,” John squinted his eyes as if he was unsure. “But I’m sure as Hell not staying here long enough to find out.” He walked over to where his cloak hung and draped it around himself and hurriedly exited the building. The crowd that inhabited the bar was keen to follow John’s lead. The bartender advised Melody and Horace that it was the last call for the evening. Horace, still remained on the floor, too scared to move from that spot. This spot was the only thing that had been stable for him in hours. Melody didn’t blame him for not moving, but he couldn’t stay there all night.

Melody sighed and made her way over to the poor man. She looked down at him and offered him a hand up. He took her hand and she pulled him up off the filthy floor. The plump man thanked her. “Wh-What is your name, traveler?” He asked timidly.

Melody chortled in response. “Your family has been slain and the first thing you ask of a stranger is their name?” She raised a brow in confusion at his choice of words. She was sure if she had been in his situation, a stranger’s name would be the furthest thing from her mind.

“Why, yes. I suppose I am,” He slowly stood and reached into his pocket and fetched his handkerchief to wipe the sweat that dripped down his blood-covered forehead. His legs looked as though they would buckle at any second. Melody grabbed a chair and set it down beside him, giving him the option to sit down. He sat down in the chair and exhaled. “Your build depicts you as someone who is a bounty hunter. Is that correct?” He asked, not directly looking into her eyes. He didn’t waste time getting to the point.

The lean woman looked down at him. “You could call it that.” She retorted.

Her lips curled into somewhat of a kind smile. It was what he needed. Assurance. “My name is Melody. Mel, if you will. How may I be of assistance?” Due to Horace being on the larger size, she pondered if he may have a small fortune. It was out of the ordinary for people, especially in Arges to be this plump. He must have had money to keep him this well-fed. He could have also just had a wife who loved him. She was in desperate need of some spare coin and he could be of some use to her. She could use Horace’s tragedy to her advantage. Horace began to tell her in great detail what happened to his family. He could have spared her the gory details, but she knew that to an extent that part of the job of a Mercenary was to listen.

Horace reached to his waist and pulled out a medium-sized, dingy coin bag filled almost to the brim with gold currency. He held it up for Mel to view. “Would this be enough to kill those horrid demons? It’s the only thing I have on me. Everything else is most likely gone.” Melody nodded and took the money. She tied it to her worn belt and tugged on it to secure it. The two discussed further details. He wanted her to bury what she could of the family on the family property as proof that she completed the task and he never wanted to see her again, which she understood. She would want to forget this occurrence too.

The woman had agreed to his terms and left the pub. She scanned her surroundings before putting the hood of her cloak up and made her way down the main road. The wind picked up and nipped at her. The wind had brought snow along with it. Before too long the ground was covered with the powdery stuff. This made her smile. To Melody, the scent of snow and cold was intoxicating. It reminded her of happier times in her life. It was good to escape to those memories. Especially due to the current state of the crumbling world around her.

Along the long dirt road, the Mercenary came across what looked to be the home of Horace, or at least what was left of it. The house had been burned to the ground thanks to the crude monsters. The crackling fire smoldered on what was the frame of the house. The ground had been charred black. Mel couldn’t tell ashes from the snow.

After approaching the home she spotted a small human skeleton, who she assumed to be Horace’s child. She kneeled and inspected the charred cadaver of the child. Mel wasn’t one for organized religion, but right then and there she spoke a quiet prayer to whatever god was listening. The girl stood up and walked around and further examined the property. It was way too quiet for a place that had been just raided by night-creatures. They weren’t the most subtle of creatures. Melody gathered the small body parts in a pile. She then looked around for a shovel. At the far end of the property sat a shovel that was pierced in the ground. Once she retrieved this she got to work on burying the remains.

After she finished her task, she continued to walk down the road to check into the possibility that the horde just swiftly relocated to an encompassing area. As she continued to walk, she saw more and more scattered bones and flesh. Horace’s family hadn’t been the only things affected by the raid. Due to the multiple body parts and bones, she felt like she was getting closer to wherever the damn things were hiding.

Besides the dwindling remains of humans, this was all very anticlimactic. No beasts to be found anywhere. Her expectations were higher than this. The woman sighed and sat on the ground and reached into her satchel. She grabbed her canteen and took a long swig of water and racked her brain on what to do next. She had never been the best tracker. Melody was pulled away from her thoughts when she heard the familiar hiss coming from the area behind her. She swiftly stood and stealthily made her way closer and closer to the sound. At first, she believed that they caught her scent, but it wasn’t her that they were after. She found herself in the brush and bushes on the side of a medium-sized clearing. She peeked through the bushes and across the clearing to see a tall, blonde-haired man draw his sword and point it to the growling creatures. “No further,” he said in a breathy tone and narrowed his eyes, and dared them to approach.

Two of the monsters from the pack resembling lizards charged at the man and jumped to attack him. Melody blinked only to see him on the side of his attackers, not under them anymore. It had to be magic. There was an aura about him that didn’t seem human. The man gripped the hilt of his sword and it began to glow blue. Fire escaped from the blade. He lunged forward before the beasts could even react and pierced them both through the side of their heads. They squealed in pain before landing on the cold snowy ground, the two attackers still burning from the sweltering blue flame.

He landed back on the ground as well and pulled his sword to him, waiting for the remaining creatures to make a move. Two more of the nuisances were bold enough to avenge their fallen comrades. One of the many night-creatures had wings and picked up the other bird-esque one up by its staff that it held firmly in its grasp. The winged-beast used his talons to fling its featherless friend towards the blonde. The beaked demon twirled his spear, before attempting to pierce the man. The man blocked the spear with his sword and made the creature pierce the ground instead. It used this mistake to propel itself back up and on its feet. It lunged forward again, attempting to attack the man again. All at once, the creatures attack him. But he held his own.

The beaked member of the horde was then picked up by the winged-beast again and they seemed to be trying to conduct some kind of aerial attack. But before they had the chance to carry it out, a crack of a whip could be heard echoing through the clearing. It knocked both creatures out of the air and onto the ground. Melody looked to where the crack of the whip had come from. There was a slim yet brawny man in the tree above the scene. From what Mel could make out, he looked to have a scar on his left eye. He was an ally of the blonde man.

The brunette slid his way down the tree trunks and cracked his whip again, grabbing the beaked-monster’s weapon before the demon could get it back into its gasp. The man jumped on top of the thing and stabbed its weapon into its chest. The second man stood up from the thing and glanced over at the first man. The brunette smiled in accomplishment towards his ally. However, before they could pat themselves on the back a fireball came rushing towards them and they both gasped and dodged swiftly. What was left of the horde was shooting flames from their mouths towards the two men. They continued to avoid the fireballs for a while until the fireballs suddenly stopped within mid-air. The flames were quickly sent right back to the creatures. Melody looked around and spotted the person or thing that had managed to do this. It was a red-haired woman in light-blue garb.

The fireballs efficiently killed the beasts. The largest of the monsters stepped forward and sucked in air, fire rising in his throat and sending an enormous amount of flames in the magic-wielding woman’s direction. The pressure of the flames pushed her backward, but she held them back and extinguished them. As the beast was about to blow more fire in her direction, the woman held her hands together, making a crushing motion which then made the hairy creature explode. The woman sighed in relief.

Melody eyed the remaining monster closely who was rising from the flames that sizzled and cracked against the snow. It flapped its wings in preparation for take-off. It knew it would not live if it was up to the trio. The three heroes stood together and watched the night creature attempt to make its getaway. “No one’s going to Arges tonight,” the blonde man spoke as the fire crackled through the brush and trees.

Before another word was spoken, Mel swiftly and silently removed the bow that had been secured to her back. She then grabbed an arrow and drew back the bow and aimed her arrow at the night creature’s head. The arrow shot up and pierced its head, instantly killing it. The Night Creature fell from the sky and onto the ground with a loud splat. The trio looked around in confusion as to where the arrow came from. Mel kept hidden in the bushes. She continued to hide from them, because if they could do that much damage to a pack of beasts, what would they do to her? She gazed out from the bushes and could only see the brunette and redhead in view. As she wondered where the blonde had gone, she felt herself being pulled up and out of the bush she was hiding in.

That same blonde male pulled her up and pushed her onto the ground. He held his sword to her throat. “Who are you?” He asked in a demanding, yet cold tone.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello All! Thank you for reading! I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this! :) 
> 
> I've been on and off working on this for a while. Let me know what you think and what you'd like to see next! 
> 
> I also take constructive criticism. :)


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